Sunday, 4 February 2018

10 Things I Learnt From the First Trimester

Eek! I’m pregnant! I’m really bad at keeping up with blogging, but I did announce it on my Twitter and my Instagram for anyone that cares. (Only the people I know in real life then). But, yeah! I’m 23 weeks pregnant! It’s the most exciting and amazing thing that has happened to me. I might post about our conception journey, but it’s uneventful, slightly TMI and pretty standard. So I probably won’t.

Anyway, let me share with you ten things I learnt from the first trimester.

1. Your boobs will double in size and feel VERY painful. And yes, they will continue to grow. To the point where you continuously flash them to your partner to shock them! Hello free boob job though!

2. Early pregnancy is about as painful as a period. When I first found out I was pregnant, I expected that I wouldn’t feel any cramping at all. That’s for periods, right? Wrong! Turns out, you will still feel cramping but it will be less consistent and catch you at random times! It’s your uterus expanding apparently.

3. The fear of being sick will make you more sick than morning sickness will. In my case, anyway. I’m one of the lucky 20% that hasn’t experienced any sickness at all. (Except when I get too hungry and my mind tells me I’m going to start feeling sick). The main fear I had about pregnancy turned out to be something I didn’t need to worry about!

4. You will convince yourself you’re actually not pregnant. Why couldn’t someone else check for me? I’d done 4 tests that were all positive but it still wasn’t enough to reassure me! The doctor didn’t check and I didn’t meet my midwife until I was 9 weeks! What if she discovered I was a fraud?! In fact, I was convinced I’d turn up for my 12 week scan and the sonographer would tell me I was making it all up.

5. It is incredibly hard not to tell people you’re pregnant. Ok, so I told my family and Bob’s family when I was 5 weeks pregnant out of pure excitement but keeping it a secret from everyone else was so difficult when you’re so excited about it! And especially when you go all day drinking in Manchester!

6. Drinking mocktails and small glasses of lemonade will make it look like you’re drinking alcohol. Don’t go for the antibiotics excuse - everyone sees through it. Order a mocktail and then when someone asks you what you’ve ordered, explain you’ve forgotten but it’s got so and so in it.. it works. Trust me. Except for when the bartender in The Alchemist shouts, “YOU KNOW IT’S GOT NO ALCOHOL IN IT YEAH?” at you. Thanks mate.

7. You will actually cry when someone puts your beans ON your toast, rather than NEXT TO your toast. Or the strawberries go bad. Or you see a dog on TV. Just basically carry tissues everywhere with you.

8. Unless you’re already a parent, you won’t have experienced tiredness like this. It’s not tiredness as such, but more like exhaustion. My bones felt so heavy and drained. My bedtime is now 8:30 or 9:00 and my wake up time is 6:00 or 7:00. Even on a weekend!! I also need to have naps in the middle of the day, which is hard when you’re at work!

9. You will get so thirsty and nothing will quench it, but you will also have so much saliva! Not so great when you’re a teacher and end up spitting all over the children in your class. Oops!

10. Seeing your baby at the 12 week scan will probably be one of the best moments of your life. Seeing it wriggle around and being able to see its heart beating was truly something I’ll remember forever.

I'm now at the back end of my second trimester and I have REALLY been enjoying this pregnancy - I thought it would be a really tough 9 months but so far it's mostly been easy. Apart from discovering I have a Single Artery Umbilical (SAU), everything has been perfect. I do anticipate this to not be the case in the third trimester though!